I had a very long post before Firefox crashed and ate it. Long story short: Find out exactly how much debt is ‘negligible’ before doing anything else.
1) How much can your parents pay per year? I’ve never known a single foreign student who wasn’t able to show ability-to-pay prior to acceptance.
2) Foreign students rarely get financial aid and never get loans without a cosigner. Do you have a US/UK cosigner? Does this mean your parents will be taking out a personal loan (at higher APR) in Hungary to pay for your tuition?
3) What sort of debt burden can they handle if you drop out? What sort of debt burden are you comfortable with if you graduate?
4) What is your contingency if something goes wrong (eg father laid off) for each schooling location?
Example, you mention Bowdoin university as a university you are considering. Bowdoin’s total cost in 2009-2010 was $50,485 to out-of-state students. Assuming $2000 in travel expenses a year, and ~$2500 incidentals you end up with 55k a year. Lets say you get a 11% APR[1], because you likely won’t be getting US Govt subsidized loans[2] and would require your parents to cosign in Hungary. You’re ~8% likely to drop out[3] and it will cost you on average $58k. You’re ~92% likely to graduate, and it will cost you on average $261k. That’s approximately 201,000 Euros, minus whatever your parents can pay.
If $260k in debt for a US school is ‘negligible’ I shudder to consider UK costs. (Though, upon research it seems they’re actually cheaper than US schools and I’m left wondering how much research you’ve given to this topic.) Further, the idea that you’d just ‘squat’ somewhere is simply insane. Such an action would drastically increase your chance of dropping out, which is a ridiculous option versus a comparatively sure thing at home in Hungary, and as noted above, dropping out is expensive too.
In summary: Double check to see if going abroad is feasible and actually calculate the cost before going any further.
[1] I don’t know the Hungary rates, but I assume they’re similar to US rates. [2] Subsidized loans are currently 6.8% and would subtract about 15k from the total cost. Plus they have other benefits compared to personal loans (tax deductions, grace periods, etc) that measure in the tens of thousands.
[3] Bowdoin has particularly good graduation rates; some colleges don’t (eg, at Purdue only 40% of students graduate within 4 years). Even a small change in graduation rates can drastically increase costs.
In the USA I’ll receive full-need financial aid, hopefully, which means that I’ll only pay what I can afford, without going into insurmountable debt In the UK I’ll take a loan to pay for the tuition, which can be paid back after I start earning a certain salary.
Why do you believe you will receive full-need financial aid in the US? Specifically, are you a US national currently living in Hungary and do you have some way to establish residence in the US?
Governments do not give financial aid because students need it. Governments view financial aid as an investment in the future; students pay back the government by paying higher taxes and having more economic activity once the student graduates. A foreign student never pays taxes, as they return home after they graduate, so a government has no incentive to help them.
Financial aid for non-nationals is exceedingly rare. Super, super rare. With the recession going on, financial aid of all types is harder to get and foreign financial aid was already hard to get. For most foreign students, ability to pay the complete cost of tuition without any aid is a significant factor to admissions. While foreign college attendance in the US has been going up, that’s because we’ve been using the higher cost that foreign students pay to help pay for domestic students.
What specific factors make you believe that you will receive US financial aid and not UK financial aid?
No, I am not an American citizen. Every single college that I am applying to is private. Private colleges that claim to offer full-need financial aid to international students usually do that. I also keep in touch with a handful of international students studying in the USA and they all receive the financial aid they needed, from private colleges of course.
What specific factors make you believe that you will receive US financial aid and not UK financial aid?
Except for a tuition fee loan, there is no other financial aid I can receive in the UK, either from the government or from the university.
I can’t understand how you got the impression that I am applying to public institutions, given that I wrote what colleges I am applying to above. (Bowdoin is a private college, for example.)
I had a very long post before Firefox crashed and ate it. Long story short: Find out exactly how much debt is ‘negligible’ before doing anything else.
1) How much can your parents pay per year? I’ve never known a single foreign student who wasn’t able to show ability-to-pay prior to acceptance.
2) Foreign students rarely get financial aid and never get loans without a cosigner. Do you have a US/UK cosigner? Does this mean your parents will be taking out a personal loan (at higher APR) in Hungary to pay for your tuition?
3) What sort of debt burden can they handle if you drop out? What sort of debt burden are you comfortable with if you graduate?
4) What is your contingency if something goes wrong (eg father laid off) for each schooling location?
Example, you mention Bowdoin university as a university you are considering. Bowdoin’s total cost in 2009-2010 was $50,485 to out-of-state students. Assuming $2000 in travel expenses a year, and ~$2500 incidentals you end up with 55k a year. Lets say you get a 11% APR[1], because you likely won’t be getting US Govt subsidized loans[2] and would require your parents to cosign in Hungary. You’re ~8% likely to drop out[3] and it will cost you on average $58k. You’re ~92% likely to graduate, and it will cost you on average $261k. That’s approximately 201,000 Euros, minus whatever your parents can pay.
If $260k in debt for a US school is ‘negligible’ I shudder to consider UK costs. (Though, upon research it seems they’re actually cheaper than US schools and I’m left wondering how much research you’ve given to this topic.) Further, the idea that you’d just ‘squat’ somewhere is simply insane. Such an action would drastically increase your chance of dropping out, which is a ridiculous option versus a comparatively sure thing at home in Hungary, and as noted above, dropping out is expensive too.
In summary: Double check to see if going abroad is feasible and actually calculate the cost before going any further.
[1] I don’t know the Hungary rates, but I assume they’re similar to US rates.
[2] Subsidized loans are currently 6.8% and would subtract about 15k from the total cost. Plus they have other benefits compared to personal loans (tax deductions, grace periods, etc) that measure in the tens of thousands. [3] Bowdoin has particularly good graduation rates; some colleges don’t (eg, at Purdue only 40% of students graduate within 4 years). Even a small change in graduation rates can drastically increase costs.
Thanks for the heads-up.
In the USA I’ll receive full-need financial aid, hopefully, which means that I’ll only pay what I can afford, without going into insurmountable debt In the UK I’ll take a loan to pay for the tuition, which can be paid back after I start earning a certain salary.
Why do you believe you will receive full-need financial aid in the US? Specifically, are you a US national currently living in Hungary and do you have some way to establish residence in the US?
Governments do not give financial aid because students need it. Governments view financial aid as an investment in the future; students pay back the government by paying higher taxes and having more economic activity once the student graduates. A foreign student never pays taxes, as they return home after they graduate, so a government has no incentive to help them.
Financial aid for non-nationals is exceedingly rare. Super, super rare. With the recession going on, financial aid of all types is harder to get and foreign financial aid was already hard to get. For most foreign students, ability to pay the complete cost of tuition without any aid is a significant factor to admissions. While foreign college attendance in the US has been going up, that’s because we’ve been using the higher cost that foreign students pay to help pay for domestic students.
What specific factors make you believe that you will receive US financial aid and not UK financial aid?
No, I am not an American citizen. Every single college that I am applying to is private. Private colleges that claim to offer full-need financial aid to international students usually do that. I also keep in touch with a handful of international students studying in the USA and they all receive the financial aid they needed, from private colleges of course.
Except for a tuition fee loan, there is no other financial aid I can receive in the UK, either from the government or from the university.
I can’t understand how you got the impression that I am applying to public institutions, given that I wrote what colleges I am applying to above. (Bowdoin is a private college, for example.)